Aikido Taught In Iwama vs. Aikikai Hombu Dojo?

[Isoyama]

I thought I might get your guys and gals take on this paragraph I cut and pasted from one of Stanley Pranin's great articles on aikidojournal.com. My reason for asking is because there is a strong tie to Seagal Sensei's aikido and Iwama-ryu aikido as Isoyama Sensei studied under O-sensei in Iwama from 1949-1958.

The aikido seen commonly today differs considerably from that developed by the founder during the Iwama years in the following respects. Atemi (strikes to vital points) have been de-emphasized or eliminated. The number of techniques commonly practiced has been reduced. The focus on irimi (entering) and initiation of techniques by tori [person executing the technique] has been lost, and the distinction between omote and ura blurred. Practice of the aiki ken, jo, or other weapons is infrequent or nonexistent. Aikido, although still considered as a budo by some, retains little of its historical martial effectiveness due to the soft, casual nature of practice and as such has been transformed into what could be better called a health or exercise system.

 

[Lotussan]

Soft and Casual....Hmmm....
I think what Steven is doing isn't akido most of the time then?
I really thought the Kung Fu was awesome in this last one...
And the bits in Exit Wounds, oh I loved those...
He's so awesome!
Thanks....

 

[jhogan]

But don't think aikido taught in aikikai affiliated schools follow this. My school is affiliated with hombu aikikai, and we practice all the strikes, etc, that this paragraph from an article says we have lost or deemphasized. Not all schools are like this. Although there are schools in the aikikai system that do teach this soft, "healing" aspect of aikido (I personally know only one person who did this, but she was not aikikai affiliated), there are more that teach the "hard" style. I am sure in the Iwama system, there are differences. But it really doesn't matter now, since Iwama is now under hombu with Isoyama leading the school.

 

[Aikilove]

I agree Jhogan. I am training according to Saito Sr. pedagogy. But I've been around quite a lot in other aikikai (main organisation) and have rarely seen what is qouted in the article. Strong techniques, Irimi and atemi are all concepts that most people I've came across teaches even non Iwama stylists.
/J

 

[tucsonbill]

That quote from the article is right on. That's what I found so dissappointing when I returned to the US in the early '80's. The Aikido that was taught in the states was so "soft" compared to the Aikdo I practiced at Ten-Shin dojo in Osaka. It made you sad.

I recall a time when Sensei Seagal addressed the softness being taught. He said something like...this is an art developed and praciced by Samurai, and we should not
forget that.

He also said that Aikido was a higher order than Karate or Kempo. His reasoning was that with hard arts like Karate...you are going to have to hurt the person to stop them. He used the illustration of a person who catches a butterfly by smashing it. And a person who was very quick and gentle...and able to catch the wings of the butterfly, yet without harming it. Who is more skilled? Aikido (the way I learned it.) gives you the option.

 

[TDWoj]

While my dojo is affiliated (ultimately) with Hombu dojo, we don't just practice aikikai. We have a full weapons program (bokken, jo and tanto) that is taught Iwama style. In the senior/advanced classes, practice can get very vigorous (as I found to my cost on the one occasion I went to an evening advanced class, and got thrown harder than my limited ukemi could take). We are taught atemi, we must make a clear distinction between omote and ura and good irimi is emphasized (and really hard for a squirt like me to do well when up against someone a foot taller, by the way).

I disagree with the article but then, I have not practiced all forms of aikido. I don't go to Ki Society seminars (Ki Society being the softest form, I guess you might say, of aikido). I've been to a Yoshinkan demostration, and can see that by the time you reach 7th or 8th dan, it's pretty much indistinguishable from aikikai (as a fellow student put it, "yoshinkan starts off rigid and ends up soft, aikikai starts off fluffy and ends up soft). Tomiki is a lot rougher, according to what I've heard from someone who has attended a tomiki dojo.

I'd be curious to know what the author of the article suggests is missing from today's practice.

Also, the whole notion of beating down your opponent, I think, was something O Sensei got away from ultimately, wasn't it?

I know that the current head of the CAF judges those testing in two streams: "martial" and "health". Women are judged only in the "health" stream; men can be judged on either (i.e., if the tester is, say, 70 years old and testing for ni dan, then he's judged in the "doing aikido for health" stream).

So, no. I don't agree with the author's contention that aikido has gotten so soft as to be nothing more than form without function. I don't know in what context the author wrote this article, but he doesn't seem to have all of the facts.

 

[tucsonbill]

TDWoj, Sounds like you have a lot more facts than I do. I'll defer to you on this.

It was the Ki-society that I practice with when I came back from Japan. The softness was not at all what I saw in Osaka. Jujitsu was more what I was use to.

 

[TDWoj]

Well, I don't know as much as I would like; of the Ki-society, I've only watched some clips on YouTube, and while the form is there, the execution is a little too cooperative (the examples I saw involved nikkyo, and there is just no way you're going to get THAT much cooperation from nage, especially since in our class, for example, if nikkyo is performed correctly, you are on the mat before you can do anything about it, and the pain is fleeting - sharp, but fleeting!). I can perhaps see that the author could be referring to Ki-Society, or he could just be referring to sloppy instruction by dojo instructors, as being the kind of softness the article suggests aikido has become. But to label all aikido as being this kind of soft, without form or definition? No. Definitely not. And I've got the sore muscles and battered body to prove it!